That says Marco Knook, ic-arts in the Reinier de Graaf hospital in Delft, against RTL Nieuws. There are currently two corona patients in his intensive care unit. There are another 15 in other wards in his hospital.
To other regions
“The pressure on healthcare is starting to increase. We will keep our admission figures stable by also transferring people. We will also do that much more and faster than during the first wave. People who will be hospitalized with corona in the near future. , should be aware that they are likely to be transferred to a hospital in another region soon. “
Whether he is ready for the second wave? “We have prepared well and know what is to come. We have an upscaling plan and we can spread patients nationwide.”
Faster than expected
He had not expected that the second wave would already start. “We are not running at full speed yet, because there are still colleagues on vacation or on leave, because they worked so much in March and April. We are actually still recovering from the first wave. But from next week that problem will arise. fortunately less and we are running at full speed again. “
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Ook ic-arts Peter de Jager, head of intensive care of the Jeroen Bosch hospital in Den Bosch, his team has been preparing for the second wave for months.
Increase among young people
At the moment it is still fairly quiet in his intensive care unit. “We are already seeing an increase in the number of corona patients in our hospital, but not like in the west of the Netherlands. We have already taken over some patients from surrounding hospitals,” he says.
All summer long, the corona crisis seemed increasingly distant. But the figures in the Netherlands have been rising in recent weeks. And now suddenly there is that second wave. Whether De Jager saw that coming? Yes and no. “It was always with waves. It was quiet for a while, but suddenly the increase came among young people,” says the IC doctor.
More infections
“Since a few weeks my concerns have started to grow. You hope that the infections will be limited to the younger group in particular, but that did not happen. And then things suddenly went very fast in some regions.”
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Since then, De Jager’s IC team, with 85 FTEs, has been ready. “Of course it is exciting what is to come and life concerns. But the atmosphere in our team is good.”
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From now on they will do this differently on the ICs
Lessons have been learned from the first wave. For example, the number of IC beds in Dutch hospitals has been scaled up. In the Jeroen Bosch there are now 20 ic beds available, instead of 14. “And we can scale up to 26 beds.” Logistics and processes have improved and progress has been made in the treatment of corona patients.
“We now know that we need to do good research into coagulation disorders in the blood, which can lead to pulmonary embolisms. Much more is also known about ventilation techniques, which allow patients to leave the IC faster. And now we also know that it is good. to administer anti-inflammatory drugs at an early stage. “
Knook agrees. In his hospital, corona patients were given the drug dexametasone, a type of prednisone-like anti-inflammatory drug, early in the corona crisis. That drug is now also used in all other hospitals. “We see that patients respond well to this, which means that they can get off the ventilator more quickly. This also reduces the time they need to stay on the IC. We are already giving the patients dexametasone before they end up on the IC.”
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Better preparation, faster upscaling and more knowledge about the right treatment for patients. All important improvements. Yet it remains exciting what is to come. “In percentage terms, fewer patients will go to the IC because we can better treat the consequences of the virus,” says De Jager. But he also warns: “The virus has not diminished in strength, corona is still just as hard as in the beginning,” he says.
‘Do not scale down regular care’
“And if the number of infected people increases a lot, it can still get very busy again. There is still a great shortage of specialized IC staff. If we defect, the regular care could be put in a tight spot again. “
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And that is something that must be prevented at all costs, says Knook. “In retrospect, we should never have scaled down regular care like that during the first wave. We really made a mistake about that. We have seen many patients who were in a much worse condition due to delayed care. And you really shouldn’t want that. . “
Fear of winter
Will the second wave be as intense as the first? It will mainly be different, Knook thinks. “We can now test more people, and therefore isolate people more quickly. But I am very concerned about the coming winter months. Because of the cold, people meet each other more often indoors, and we know from research that the most infections take place there. Staying indoors all together, I foresee a huge influx of patients. I do worry about that, yes. “
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What has De Jager himself had the most difficulty with? “That family could have so little contact with their loved one. I was very sorry to see that. We did have all kinds of teams that helped with video calling and kept in touch with family. But physical visits were difficult.”
Knook says: “Of course we are going to take good care of our corona patients, but we would have preferred it to be less necessary. I am disappointed that as a society we seem to be unable to follow a few simple rules.”
‘Hold on now’
At the same time, he has some understanding. “I was also young, and I understand those young people well. I would not have liked these rules either. But it is no different, we have to keep this up now.”
And for those who don’t follow those rules, he has one clear and urgent piece of advice: “Keep away from your parents, uncles, aunts, grandpas and grandmas and other elderly or vulnerable people.”
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